h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Hamburgers in history - A1012366
Author: Farlander - campaigning for microbes @ A1001854 - U206300

this was originally part of the article 'the history of western fast food', but then i was told, why waste it all on one article when i can have several covering different aspects of fast food. so i've fissioned the original article... 'the evolution of hot dogs' (A1011709) is part of the same original article. i'm working on the rest of the fragments at the moment, and will bung them in peer review when i'm done...

really good - now tell us why in the name of hell McDonald's started putting a gerkhin into their burgers ?

Great article -

ooh, tough meat... maybe you should ask the fellow who wrote the mcdonald's guide entry i'll go look it up...

although... i would have to tell you that the mcd's hamburgers here don't have gherkins in 'em...

I'd like to see a hamburger with gherkins actually *in* it - like a jammy dodger biscuit... with the gherkin part being where the jam is and the burger surrounding it like the biscuit.

I used to hate the gherkin and always throw it away... now I love it! Strange.

Great article! Made me real hungry. I would clarify that San Bernardino is in California (for those not aware of that).

Also, I'm sure that the legendary founder of the In-n-Out Burger pretty much invented the two-way speaker system for ordering food, thus creating the drive-through style of ordering hamburgers and such. This was circa 1948, a couple years before Jack in the Box was founded (1951) and quickly expanded to become the huge chain that it is, bringing the idea of a drive-through to the rest of the country. It might also be noted that the culture of doing everything with your auto in the late 40s and 50s being so phenomenally popular in Los Angeles is part of what may have led to the drive-through as a natural extension to the drive-up or drive-in to be served by some attractive gals on roller skates.

Having said all that, this is obviously a great, well-written article. Just my usual minor quibbles!

- JD

mmm... how detailed should a discussion of drive-ins with regards to the hamburger business in this article be, do you think? i think that the history of the drive-in would be a good article subject on its own, although i can't say i know too much about them since they came along a *long* time before i was born! (what i *do* know i learnt from american grafitti )

i'll see if i can find stuff about the in-n-out burger - another relic of a time i never got to see - and see where i can bung it in. thanks!

Interesting; I have always assumed that the hamburger was invented in Hamburg, Germany and the frankfurter in frankfurt (I haven't read the hot dog entry yet). My question is; is the beef patty the hamburger or does it have to be inside a bap to be called a hamburger?

SK

well, from what i've read, i believe that you'd have to have it stuck between stuff to call it a hamburger, although dictionaries define it differently...

Ah, I'm sorry, I'd originally thought that you'd credited the Drive-through concept to Jack in the Box, and not In-n-Out. That was the reason for my comment. As Jack in the Box is far more widespread (indeed, I think they were the first major drive-through chain), there is no real need to make special mention of In-n-Out unless you were talking about the inventor of the drive-through system ... I must have mis-read the original.

As your entry is about the burger itself, it looks strange to put them in there (In-n-Out) since I doubt anyone outside of Southern California has heard of them - maybe in Las Vegas, Nevada and Phoenix, Arizona now, but ... well, I'm getting ridiculous. Feel free to take them back out, your sentence that says "there are many, many more out there" is perfectly fine.


- JD

well, jd, i don't think you read wrong. after i got your message, i did a search and read up on the in-n-out burger thing, and decided that since they were responsible for introducing the speaker system, that i'd put them in the article. i have a tendency to make corrections without alerting people to them... it tends to confuse some

You might want to mention that the 'meat-under-the-saddle' story is the origin of, at least the name, steak tartare.

The 'second origin' bit doesn't make sense. Cut to the bone it reads: "Another possible origin is Stark County, Ohio, where Frank and Charles Menches sold sausage patty sandwiches at fairs in the Midwest. Named it ?hamburger? after Hamburg, New York, where the fair was being held."
New York is in the Midwest? You can sell sandwiches at fairs in the Midwest _in_ Stark County, Ohio?

The next origin is missing it's final period.

You should ditch the Freedom Fries footnote.

What's with the "E. coli O157:H7" bit? I suspect it's better left out than explained in the entry.

Oh, and in the second footnote the 'biggest hamburger' _weighed_, not wheight. (or: the biggest hamburger, weight lots of pounds, was served)

In the final paragraph you should avoid the repetition of 'just isn't the same'. You could rewrite the second sentence to: Whatever their nutritional value, it is just not _equal to_ having a fat, succulent hamburger patty sitting in between two bun slices.

I'll shut up now.

the 'weighed' bit was a typo - thanks for spotting it. have lost the freedom fries footnote and the e. coli strain (i just left it as e. coli. surely people will know?). have re-written the menches bit - i admit i was somewhat sloppy when writing it and so got bits of history mixed up. ohio was where the brothers were *from*.

thanks again!

I'd just like to say 'well done'. I found this entry a fascinating read, and I don't even like s!

thanks! maybe you'll like classic hot dogs better? i've got an article about 'em somewhere in pr...

So, shall I accept this, or has anyone got any last-minute comments?

Hint: If you choose the former, I'll be very happy. So happy, I might even do my happy dance

Well, I think six hours on the grill is long enough. It's going in!

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Well done again, Farlander!

RhoMuNuQ

Yay! Well done, Farlander!

I think this calls for a celebration. Help yourselves, everyone!